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The Clarence Thomas Center for Historic Preservation, SCAD (Orphanage and Convent for the Missionary Sisters of the Franciscan Order)

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1908; 2009–2010 restoration and renovation, Dawson Architects. 439 East Broad St.

The former orphanage and convent is a three-story brick building with a chapel on the first floor and a cupola with a cross on the roof. After the building was closed in 1944, SCAD restored it to house classrooms, computer labs, and a state-of-the-art conservation lab. The current name honors Clarence Thomas, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, who served as an altar boy in the adjacent church. He is also the most famous alumnus of St. Benedict the Moor School (1916; closed 1969) at 556 E. Gordon Street, which replaced the original 1907 school for black children that the Missionary Franciscan Sisters had opened in the basement of the church.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Robin B. Williams with David Gobel, Patrick Haughey, Daves Rossell, and Karl Schuler
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What's Nearby

St. Benedict the Moor Church
St. John Baptist Church
King-Tisdell Cottage
Prince Hall Masonic Lodge and Order of the Eastern Star
Railroad Worker Cottages

Citation

Robin B. Williams with David Gobel, Patrick Haughey, Daves Rossell, and Karl Schuler, "The Clarence Thomas Center for Historic Preservation, SCAD (Orphanage and Convent for the Missionary Sisters of the Franciscan Order)", [Savannah, Georgia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/GA-02-9.7.

Print Source

Buildings of Savannah, Robin B. Williams. With David Gobel, Patrick Haughey, Daves Rossell, and Karl Schuler. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2016, 174-174.

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